THIS WEEKEND Martin
Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio scored the biggest openings of their careers
with the psychological thriller Shutter Island,
the fourth teaming between the two men, which easily led the North American
box office. With no other films debuting in wide release, the rest of the
top ten was filled with holdovers, most of which dropped by more than 50%
from last weekend's record holiday session. The top ten films beat out
year-ago levels, however the Top 20 fell behind last year's performance
due to the current marketplace's lack of depth.

Moviegoers spent the weekend with the criminally insane as the mystery
thriller Shutter Island debuted at
number one with $41.1M, according to final
studio figures. Paramount launched the R-rated film in 2,991 theaters and
averaged a strong $13,729 per site. Previous bests for the men were $26.9M
for the director's The Departed and
$30.1M for the actor's Catch Me If You Can.
Last August, the studio surprised the industry by moving Shutter
from October 2 (the same slot that worked wonders for Departed)
to this current weekend. While the date change took the film out of this
winter's awards season, it allowed the pic to squeeze more value from its
marketing materials. Plus the studio was able to run a very well-received
TV spot during the Super Bowl two weeks ago to help heighten excitement.

Shutter Island scored the sixth
biggest opening in February and the third best for an R-rated film. It
was also the second highest for 2010 behind just Valentine's
Day from last weekend. Studio research showed that the $75M
production played evenly among males and females as well as with those
over and under 25. Reviews were good overall but critics were not ecstatic.
Scorsese's films have typically been more artsy and have almost always
debuted to less than $12M from more narrow releases. Shutter
was a more commercial vehicle and was sold as a mainstream thriller from
an Oscar-winning filmmaker which was all that was needed to convince ticket
buyers.

After a huge top spot debut, the romantic comedy Valentine's
Day couldn't score a second date with audiences as the Warner
Bros. release tumbled by a disturbing 70% to $16.7M. But it was still a
good showing for a film of its type in the sophomore frame and helped to
boost the ten-day tally to a solid $86.9M. Much of the decline was due
to Sunday's take which fell sharply from last Sunday which was Valentine's
Day. Compared to last weekend's daily grosses, the PG-13 film dropped 61%
on Friday, 60% on Saturday, but a steep 84% on Sunday. A final tally of
$120-130M seems likely.

The unstoppable Na'vi pic Avatar
climbed one spot to third with $16.2M, off only 31%, boosting the record-shattering
total to $688M. James Cameron is on track to score the first-ever $700M-grossing
blockbuster by next Sunday, the last day of February. Overseas, the Best
Picture contender collected an estimated $51M, off only 14%, boosting the
international total to $1.78 billion and the worldwide tally to $2.47 billion.
The overseas share of the global haul is now 72%.

Fox claimed fourth place too with the fantasy adventure Percy
Jackson & The Olympians which dropped 51% to $15.3M in its
second round. The PG-rated effects pic has banked $58.7M in ten days and
has a shot at breaking the $100M mark by the end of its run. Universal's
monster flick The Wolfman suffered
a 69% fall to $9.9M and lifted its cume to $50.4M in ten days. Produced
for over $100M, the R-rated thriller should finish with around $70M.

Former chart-topper Dear John ranked
sixth with $7.1M, off 56%, giving Sony $65.8M to date. Playing to a slightly
different audience, The Tooth Fairy
slipped only 28% to $4.4M for a $49.7M sum for Fox.

The studio's fourth title in the top ten came from Fox Searchlight's
Oscar contender Crazy Heart which dipped
only 31% to $3M for a $21.5M total thus far. John Travolta's From
Paris With Love dropped 52% to $2.7M while Mel Gibson's Edge
of Darkness fell 54% to $2.2M. Cumes stand at $21.4M and $40.3M,
respectively.

It was an eventful weekend for director Roman Polanski who is currently
under house arrest in Switzerland. His newest film The
Ghost Writer won him the Silver Lion award for best director
at the Berlin International Film Festival and also generated a muscular
platform launch in the United States with $183,009 from just four theaters
for a sizzling $45,752 average. Bowing in only two locations a piece in
New York and Los Angeles, Summit's PG-13 film starring Pierce Brosnan,
Ewan McGregor, Kim Cattrall, and Tom Wilkinson earned strong reviews but
just a moderate B+ CinemaScore from ticket buyers. Ghost
expands into ten more markets on Friday as it continues to roll
out across the country.

The top ten films grossed $118.4M which was up 6% from last year when
Madea Goes To Jail opened in the top
spot with $41M; and up 39% from 2008 when Vantage
Point debuted at number one with $22.9M.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of
the author.